Joyful Noise revives the cassette

The members of Joan of Arc (Tim Kinsella, middle) hide behind foliage.

The
humble, hissing audiocassette is making a comeback. Cassette-only labels are
popping up around the country, including in Bloomington, where Magnetic South
offers ultra low-fi, ultra-mysterious releases in non-descript, brown-paper
packaging. And Karl Hofstetter, founder of local music label Joyful Noise
Recordings, is ushering their return to the Indianapolis music scene.

Joyful
Noise is releasing a 10 cassette box set of Chicago band Joan Of Arc's library
of albums. Local band Marmoset will return with a limited edition cassingle, or
cassette single, featuring two demos from their upcoming album, Sour
Notebook.
And Joyful Noise will release a cassette version of the new of Montreal album, False
Priest,
this September.

The
Joan of Arc and Marmoset releases coincide with the seventh anniversary of
Joyful Noise Recordings and the vinyl release of a new Abner Trio album, a band
Hofstetter plays in. An August 20 show at the Melody Inn will function as an
anniversary party and release show, featuring performances Joan of Arc, Abner
Trio, Marmoset and Jookabox.

A
box of tapes

The
Chicago-based band Joan of Arc, founded in 1995 out of the ruins of seminal emo
group Cap'n Jazz, fronted by prolific songwriter and only permanent band member
Tim Kinsella, has long been one of Hofstetter's favorites. "[They] are really a
crazy artsy band," Hofstetter says. "They jump all over the place in terms of
their sound. They are best known for having acoustic kind of sounds mixed with
electronic sounds but that's over simplifying it."

To
assemble the box set Hofstetter licensed the band's 10 albums from their former
labels: Jade Tree, Record Label, Perishable Records, and their current home,
Polyvinyl. Each set is housed in a limited-edition, custom-built and
screen-printed wooden box. 100 copies were produced and 80 of the sets sold out
in two days. Five copies will be
available for $50 at Friday's show. Another five will be available at a release
show Saturday night in Chicago. The remaining ten will be distributed to
various music stores.

The
entire Joan Of Arc catalog, however, will be available as individual cassettes.
Each cassette, both in the box set and individually sold, contains a digital
download link for the corresponding album.

"Their
albums have never been on cassette," Hofstetter says. "But they've been on
every other format. With digital being the primary way people get their music
these days anything can be a medium to release an album. You can release an
album on a condom wrapper. And that's the format of the album — as long
as it has a space for a digital download code."

"This
is a novelty," he allows. "I understand that most people probably aren't going
to be listening to the cassettes even though they are going to look and sound
really good. [The cassettes] are a vehicle for the digital download. For the
Joan Of Arc super fans it seems to be a desirable thing."

Joan
Of Arc released their first album, A Portable Model Of..., in 1997 during the
final years of the cassette tape. The band wanted the album pressed to cassette
but the label had no interest in doing so.

"It's
been funny to see things come full circle where CDs are becoming obsolete and
cassettes are having a resurgence," Hoffstetter says.

Now
that Joyful Noise has established a relationship with Joan of Arc, the label
plans to carry a vinyl version of the band's next album Oh Brother, which is due for release
by the close of the year.

Hofstetter,
who founded Joyful Noise in 2003, says he had no long-term plans for the label
when he started it to release work by his then-band Melk the G6-49. And he
still doesn't.

"I
can't envision five years from now," he explains. "It's just impossible. But
when I first started if someone told me I'd have Marmoset on the label and Joan
Of Arc on the label I would have been very excited."

Joyful
Noise remains a vehicle for releasing some of Hofstetter's own stuff: Abner
Trio, in which Hofstetter plays drums, returns to active service with the
release of their album, The
Giant Crushes You.
"The last Abner Trio full length album [released in 2006] was the eighth Joyful
Noise release," he says. "The new one is coming out while the label is on its
64th release."

Finishing
the album was made more difficult once Abner Trio lead singer Daniel Paquette
moved to Chicago. "It's a large reason why it's taken us three years to finish
the record," Hofstetter says. "You can't have regular practice schedules. You
can't take every show opportunity that comes by. You can't get together to just
hang out which is important to a band. Every time we get together we have to
make the most of it — rehearse the songs and such. Daniel has done a lot
though — he rents cars to drive to Indianapolis every month or two
— so he's shown a lot of commitment. It's challenging but not
impossible."

Meanwhile,
the Joan Of Arc box set is paying dividends in a way Hofstetter never imagined.
Joan of Arc's labelmate on Polyvinyl, of Montreal, got wind of the cassette
project, and one night Hofstetter got a surprise email from Polyvinyl reading,
"Are you interested in putting out the new of Montreal on cassette? I just
cleared it with Kevin." Kevin being of Montreal front man Kevin Barnes.

"At
the time [Polyvinyl] didn't know that I was a huge of Montreal fan, so it was
just amazing," Hofstetter says.

of
Montreal, based out of Athens, Ga., released their first album in 1997. Over
the past few years they have become a critical success, and their psychedelic
glam pop has garnered them a dedicated following.

In
2008, of Montreal released their album, Skeletal Lamping, not only on CD and
vinyl but also on t-shirts, buttons, decals, bags, and paper lanterns. Each item
came with a digital download code. Barnes wrote an essay on the project
explaining that it was important to produce things that could be of some use
and wouldn't sit around on a shelf.

Cassette
preorders for of Montreal's False Priest begin August 18. The cassettes are
limited to 500 hand-numbered copies. "of Montreal is known for the 'digital
download with object' style of release," says Hofstetter. "But they have not
done a cassette, so it seemed like a natural fit for Joyful Noise Recordings to
do it."